Why Tyler Knight Switched to Vermeer™ Net

November 2017

For third-generation farmer Tyler Knight, creating the best bale of hay is about more than just hay quality. It’s about making a product that he can be proud of — a better bale for his customers and for himself.

Unfortunately for Knight — who operates a 100-head cow-calf beef operation and custom hay business in Lowry City, Missouri — the quest to create the best bale came with a few hiccups along the way.

“I got started (farming) with my grandfather,” Knight said. “When I took over I wanted to be more competitive in custom harvesting. We had an older baler that used twine so we decided to get a netwrap baler.”

With his first obstacle (his outdated baler) behind him, things started improving — netwrapped bales were so much better than twine. But then, alas, a new problem formed.

“I actually don’t own a Vermeer baler,” Knight explained. “The baler I have, has its own netwrap that is recommended to use and I stuck with that and continued to stick with that even though I was continuously having bale loss. I was having close to 10-20 percent loss of my hay bales from the rippage.”

With a bale count of 2,500-5,000 a year, the losses were really starting to add up as he knew he couldn’t charge his customers for the ripped bales. Knight contacted his baler manufacturer to inspect his baler, but they just couldn’t find an explanation for the ripped bales.

“I had the (baler’s maintenance team) come out and look at my baler several times to try to figure out the problem,” Knight said.

With no solution from his manufacturer’s team and his profit margins hanging in the balance, he did something a little out of the box — he called a Vermeer maintenance tech: Austin Shelby.

“I ended up calling Vermeer and they came out in order to troubleshoot my baler, even though it wasn’t a Vermeer,” Knight said.

Shelby arrived to assess the situation and had a pretty good hunch what the problem was before he even parked his truck.

“I drove down the road and I saw the bales sitting there and I thought to myself, ‘he needs some of our Vermeer™ Net’ before I even got out of the truck,” Shelby said. “With that being said, I still needed to see his baler and make sure there wasn’t something that was causing the netwrap he had to malfunction.”

Sure enough, nothing was wrong with the baler.

“(Shelby) eventually recommended that I try a demo roll of Vermeer Net to see how that worked out,” Knight said. “So, I used a small demo roll of Vermeer Net and baled 50 bales that day — didn’t miss one.”

With not a tear in sight, Knight placed another call to Vermeer the next day and ordered two full rolls of Vermeer Net.

“I ended up doing 347 bales in one day (with Vermeer Net) and I didn’t miss one bale,” Knight said. “After that I was a pretty firm believer — since then I’ve ordered 10 more rolls of Vermeer Net — haven’t had one miss yet.”

Shelby was glad to help find a solution to Knight’s problem — in fact, he said he gets similar calls all the time.

“We’ve had several people reach out with situations similar to Tyler’s — (the problem) has been as simple to fix as putting Vermeer Net in their baler,” Shelby said. “Vermeer Net is made of material designed for superior strength. In my experience, it’s reliable and helps keep the bale tight.”

Now that he’s making a better bale for his customers, Knight says he’s been hearing nothing but positive feedback.

“You can produce a nice tight bale — you’re able to keep a bale longer than a year with less spoilage,” Knight said. “My customers have found that they’re able to keep hay over a lot better and it’s more efficient for their operations”

*Information noted above was gathered from a third party who was advised his/her experience might be featured in marketing materials. Individual results may vary based on care and operation of machine and crop and field conditions, which may adversely affect performance.

One Comment

Curtis Terryon November 15th, 2017

I have always had a Vermeer bailer some were better than others the 1 I have now 504M C is the best so far ,never tried vermeer net till I got this one at $240 a roll [spring time $220] way out does the JD at $330 and NH at $280 some different off brands at the farm store .I didn't try Vermeer net on the ones it was not out yet I have got my neighbors using it too.

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